Artist in Residence Program
Our six month artist in residence program features a Vancouver artist who will offer workshops, lectures, and community engagement that will help expose our city to the power and passion of making art!
SUBMISSIONS FOR 2023 ARE NOW CLOSED
Artist in Residence 2023-24
Ashley Cook is a queer, multidisciplinary artist and designer with a keen interest on how we perceive and notice the world through language and metaphors. She enjoys teaching and learning with others and holds a bachelors and masters in design. Reading and researching have become integral parts of her process, including research into non-western practices, thinking, and language patterns. She believes having the language to express and understand yourself within the world helps to better visualize your experiences. She works with paper mechanics, charcoal, acrylic painting, block printing, or a combination of these mediums. Recently, she has started to explore defining and connecting her queerness and spirituality as a means to help sort through religious trauma from growing up in a Southern Baptist community.
To check out their work, visit:
https://www.avcook.co
www.instagram.com/a.v.cook
Artist in Residence 2022-23
Ilena is a ceramic artist, teacher, technician, theatre artist and writer from a trailer park at the end of the road in Alaska. She has created work around the world and worked with many local arts organizations; Richmond Arts Centre, PuSh Festival, Atira Womens resources, Queer Arts Festival, Frank Theatre and many many others.
Ilena’s studio practice is a mix of contemporary wheel thrown techniques and traditional hand build and pit fired techniques. She travels through history and picks up artifacts like mud, rusty stuff, and stories to make things that feel comfortable and familiar, yet altogether surprising. Ilena says, “Whether I am making plays, poetry or pottery I am making art that is simple and accessible. I search to find the universal language—touch, laughter, home. My pots are empty spaces meant to hold my day dreams, a loving touch, or a wine-warmed smile.”
Learn more about Ilena by visiting ilenaleepottery.com
Live @ The Chapel
The Chapel is an intimate space perfect for happy hour, live music, poetry readings, and small gatherings.
On the corner of Nelson and Burrard, we’re right in the heart of Downtown and the West End. Look for the glowing pink doors behind the 2/44 bus stop on Burrard St.
We host live music, pop-ups, and happy hours. Join us for wine, beer, and light snacks after work or before heading out for the night!
Sacred Poetry Workshop
Poetry touches the spaces in between the sacred and the mundane.
Join Tim Scorer for poetry that will transform and change us in a discussion-based workshop that explores poetry from different writers and traditions. To register visit the events page.
Angels Are Around Us (Suzie Hartford, 2022)
What are angels to you? Walking through artist Suzie Hartford’s exhibit you will experience a motivating and enchanting expression of different forms of precious angel wings. “Angels Are Around Us” exhibit is full of unique hand sculpted angel wings that were created with no limitations on what angles can look like. Suzie Hartford’s angel wings are made up of mixed media materials to create a magical scene of sculpted genuine angel wings.
Find out more HERE.
What Seeds Will You Leave Behind (Laara Cerman, 2022)
As a Vancouver-based BIPOC artist, my work explores the
intersection of art, science, and history through investigating patches of wildness that survive within suburban and urban landscapes. When St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church gave me the opportunity to explore the question of Easter in a publicly engaging way, I intuitively reached into my Ukrainian roots to inform my approach. While I began this artwork before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the recent events in my ancestors’ homeland have made the Pysanka-inspired design that much more personal.
Around the world Easter reminds people that new life can still arrive after a dark and difficult time. In the early days of the 2022 invasion, a Ukrainian woman was recorded instructing a Russian solider to “put sunflower seeds in your pocket so they grow when you die.” What seeds will you leave behind?
To find more of Laara’s work vist her site at www.laaracerman.com
You Are Welcome Here (Cynthia Tran Vo, 2022)
We were excited to work with Cynthia Tran Vo, a multidisciplinary designer and muralist based in West End to explore what welcome might mean. Wrapping the stone edifice of our 90-year-old church, “You Are Welcome Here” is a multilingual exploration of how messages of welcome can be understood, expressed, and passed-along within community. How do you feel when receiving a genuine welcome? What words of welcome might you share with newcomers to your own community?
To see more of Cynthia Tran Vo’s work, visit their site. www.cynthiatranvo.com
